


I Held Your Hand In the Sunlight (A Knife at the Ready in the Other)

by Shuttering_Flutterflies



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Child Abuse, Child Death, Child Neglect, Fredbear's Family Diner, Gaslighting, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Pre-The Bite of '87, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unhealthy Relationships, william is a smug prick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:00:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23262097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shuttering_Flutterflies/pseuds/Shuttering_Flutterflies
Summary: Henry has a complete breakdown after the disappearance and death of his beloved daughter and Sammy is left behind.William, in his infinite generosity and kindness, offers to step in and adopt Sammy, at least until Henry can get back on his feet.
Relationships: Elizabeth Afton & Michael Afton, Michael Afton & Henry Emily, Michael Afton & William Afton | Dave Miller, The Crying Child & Older Brother (Five Nights at Freddy's), William Afton | Dave Miller & Henry Emily
Comments: 4
Kudos: 63





	I Held Your Hand In the Sunlight (A Knife at the Ready in the Other)

**Author's Note:**

> William is a fucking dirtbag and I hate him

William nudges Henry's front door open loudly. He doesn't want to spook Henry again, not after last time.

The house is dark, quiet, dank, and William curls his lip in distaste, although he can't say he's surprised. Of course Henry would just completely break down after Charlotte's death, he really hadn't expected anything different. Despite the scene, despite the fact that Henry and William have been best friends since childhood, there's a small part of William that is completely and utterly satisfied with this - the proof that William has destroyed Henry, a symbol of the power William holds.

He carefully makes sure that his expression is solemn and moves over to the sofa, where his eyes have adjusted enough to make out the shape of Henry lying there, defeated and lifeless. As he goes, he turns the light on, and carefully watches Henry to see his reaction.

Nothing.

Oh shit, did he die?

Henry sighs and shifts slightly. Not dead, then.

As William comes to stand in front of Henry, he notices the way Henry looks at him, a bitter glare in his eyes and a furious twist to his mouth, and briefly fears that Henry knows somehow, that despite the precautions William took, Henry knows that William killed Charlotte, that he smiled at her and told her it would all be okay, then drove a knife into her stomach while she screamed.

What would he say, William wondered, if he knew that Charlotte died screaming and crying, desperately begging for her daddy to save her? Would he cry? Would he attack William in rage? It was almost tempting to tell him, just to see Henry's reaction, but William was sensible enough to stay quiet until Henry was able to speak.

"Why are you here."

William closes his eyes in annoyance. How is that even a question? Henry hadn't shown up for work every day for two weeks, William was forced to hire some schmuck off the streets to hell keep the diner running, and he wasn't even good at job.

Also, they were friends or whatever.

William makes sure to sound concerned when he speaks, going as far as to claps his hands in front of him.

"It's been two weeks, Henry. You haven't shown up to work, I haven't heard from you. I was worried."

At this, Henry manages to sit up, guilt on his face. He's a mess, clothes rumpled and dirty, beard tangled almost to the point of being beyond saving, his eyes raw from crying. He fixes William with a dull look on his face, swaying slightly.

"I'm fine," he says. "I appreciate you coming to check on me, I really do, but I'm fine."

He goes on, rambling different excuses they both know William isn't going to believe _(I've been sick, I can't sleep, any day now I'll come back to work and things will go back to normal)_ and William chooses to tune him out, looking across the room. It's a mess, plates dirty plates stacked almost to the ceiling, dirt and dust all over the floor, the table broken in the corner, but William doesn't spare it a glance. He has something specific he's trying to find. All of Charlotte's things, her toys and drawings pinned to the walls, are gone and William had expected that, but there's almost no sign that another child lives on this house.

"Henry," he says, and Henry immediately falls silent. "Where is Sammy?"

Henry seems to crumple on himself, and reaches out for a letter sitting beside him on the sofa. He throws at at William, who scrambles to catch it, and buries his face in his hands. William unfolds the letter, and - ah. Henry's lost custody of Sammy, for obvious reasons. It's funny in a sad way, William has completely destroyed Henry's life just by sniffing out one tiny girls life, and Henry has no idea. He continues reading, more than a little pleased with himself.

Sammy's mother and grandparents are dead so he's being taken into foster care. Henry isn't allowed to visit him until he pulls himself together which is a paradox because William knows Henry well, and he knows that the twin blows of Charlotte dying and Sammy being taken away are blows Henry will never recover from. As he continues, he notices something very interesting.

The social worker is the wife of a man William knows him college year, a man William has quite a lot of knowledge on, the kind that would destroy their lives absolutely and completely. He can work with this.

He sits next to Henry on the dingy sofa and Henry leans against him, breathing heavily. William puts his arm around him, suppressing his disgust at the situation.

"I have an idea," he says and Henry turns to look at him, tired curiosity in his eyes. "I could get custody of Sammy, look after him until you get your life back together. That way Sammy gets a stable home life and you know he's okay. What do you think?"

Several emotions pass across Henry's face, shock, confusion, joy, but eventually he settles on confusion. "How are you going to get custody? Sammy was just taken and they'll know we're friends. It's a nice thought, but..."

William smiles at him, wide and calculating. It's not a nice smile and something in Henry's eyes reflect this. This is a side of William's he hasn't seen before, a side William has worked very hard to keep hidden.

"Henry," he says coolly, relaxing his grin into a more regular one. "I'm incredibly rich. I'm sure I could bribe my way into getting Sammy."

Henry opens and closes his mouth again, looking stunned. " _Will_ ," he breathes, looking away from him. "You would really do that?"

William stands up, looking down on Henry. "Of course, Henry. We've been friends for a very long time, it's the least I could do."

Henry follows suit and gets to his feet, staggering forward so he can pull William into a tight hug. "Thank you," he sobs. "God, I can't you would believe this!"

William pats his head gingerly, and gently removes Henry's arms from his body. Henry rubs his eyes and looks at him in awe, and it's all so very pathetic and funny. His earlier thoughts come back, and he again ruminates on how quickly he could destroy his relationship with Henry. It would take three simple words _and Henry would hate him forever_.

The temptation lingered in the back of his mind, but William instead takes off for the door. "I'll get started as soon as I get home and keep you updated."

Before Henry can say anything, William is outside and in his car. He waves to Henry, standing in his doorway looking stunned, and takes off for home

* * *

It takes a fortnight of bribery and talks before Sammy is brought into William's home. William decides to put him in the room he kept Charlotte in. It's plain, but it has a bed and drawers in it, so it will have to do. Michael and Elizabeth have mixed feeling on it. Michael, always concerned with being good and doing the right thing, is worried that Sammy will be hurt from this, being so close to Henry as he tries to pull himself together. Elizabeth is excited to have a friend her own age, but upset because Sammy is a year older than her and she was really wanting to be the oldest for once. She pouts about the house for a week over it and it's adorable in its childishness.

When Sammy is brought to William's home, Michael and Elizabeth are on their best behaviour, having been warned multiple times by William to be nice. Sammy says hello with tears in his eyes and retreats to his new bedroom as soon as dinner ended.

"Why is he so weird?" Elizabeth asks, picking at her roast beef with her knife. "Charlie was always so much fun."

William opens his mouth but Michael beats him to it, a sad expression in his eyes.

"His sister died, Liz," Michael explains. "He saw her get dragged away, of course he's going to be upset."

Elizabeth frowned at her food, squinting like she was trying to figure out a difficult puzzle. William took his opportunity to interject.

"He was also taken away from his father" he adds. "Give him time and he nice to him and I'm sure he'll open up in no time."

Elizabeth sulks but nods and the next day she offers Sammy her Bonnie plush, the brand new one William had gotten her for her birthday, and comforts Sammy when he starts sobbing at the sight of it.

When William goes to work the next day, Sammy comes along. He clings to Michael's arm the entire car ride, and stares out of the window in terror. When the car stops, Sammy outright refuses to get out, no matter how many times the three Aftons try to coax him out.

After ten minutes of trying, William gives up and decides to get Henry. Henry and the new employee, some guy called Scott or whatever, are talking, and Henry turns to smile at William.

"Is Sammy here?" he asks looking around excitedly, and William nods towards the parking lot.

Henry leaves immediately and William trails behind to watch the reunion. Michael and Elizabeth are still trying to get Sammy to come inside, but stop as they see Henry. As soon as Sammy sees Henry, he gets out of the car and sprints towards his father, laughing as he throws himself into Henry's arms. Henry's straightens up, laughing into Sammy's hair and the two stand there for a while, just happy to be together.

Elizabeth wanders off to play and Michael comes over to stand beside William. The two Aftons watched the reunion between the Emily's for a moment in silence, before Michael decides to speak up.

"They look happy together," he says quietly and slowly leans over to wrap an arm around William.

William instinctively puts his own arm around William and Michael sighs happily, pulling William into a side hug. William has never been fond of hugging, but he looks at Michael's face, how happy he looks and decides that he'll let Michael have this, for now.

* * *

Over time, the Aftons and Sammy fall into a routine. Sammy still spends most of his time holed up in his room, only coming out of his shell when he spends time with Henry at the diner. The diner is also where Sammy is at his most afraid, hiding under tables or following Michael like a terrified ghost whenever Henry is unavailable. Michael and Sammy get along the best, Michael seems resigned to the fact that Sammy will go back home soon, but he treats Sammy kindly. Elizabeth, on the other hand, gets bored of him as soon as she realises Sammy isn't the new playmate she wants him to be, and ignores him for the most part.

At the diner, Henry gets better. He still has a sadness in his eyes, but he makes an effort to stay healthy for Sammy, even as the diner slowly loses customers. Charlotte's death is common knowledge, and most people in Hurricane have decided to not visit the restaurant who's claim to fame is the kidnapping and murder of an eight year old. Adding to these problems is the Puppet, always seen as creepy by customers, it's begun acting in strange, unpredictable ways that only serves to drive people away. William, of course, had predicted that. He'd grown tired of Fredbears Diner and the simple, bland animatronics that worked there. He wanted to move on, to create a pizzeria that allowed him to use his skills in robotics and create an all-new restaurant that would make his growing robotics company a household name.

He'd been preparing for a while, buying out a pizzeria with a similar gimmick as Fredbears so he could use their characters and capitalise off its success. Chica and Foxy weren't his own characters, but he has updated them to be modern and fun, characters that could compete with Fredbear and Bonnie. The headliner animatronic is all his idea. A human girl with rosy cheeks and red pigtails, based off a little girl Elizabeth was friends with, a little girl Elizabeth swore up and down that she didn't have a crush on, with the name Circus Baby.

As William worked on his animatronics he remembered that Henry had decided to dedicate Fredbear and Bonnie to Sammy and Charlie, so he decides to let Elizabeth have partial ownership of Baby, even if it's in name only.

It takes William a year to finish getting everything set up for his new business endeavour, a year in which Sammy is still living with him. Now that William isn't blackmailing/bribing child protective services to get custody of Sammy, its dragging his feet when it comes to Henry getting his son back, and slowly Henry begins to fall back into bad habits as he slowly loses hope of getting Sammy back and being able to keep Fredbear's open for another year.

William has been unable to bring up the matter to Baby to Henry. He knows how Henry will see it, a complete betrayal to the diner they built together and he just doesn't want to deal with that, so he puts it off until the last possible moment.

It happens on a Monday, when the pizzeria is completely empty and the kids are at school. William pulls out a cigarette and decides to brainstorm the best way to advertise his pizzeria, now going by the name of Circus Baby's Pizza World, when Henry sits beside him, an awkward look on his face.

"They're opening a new pizzeria," he begins. "Its supposed to be really high-tech and-"

"You don't know if Fredbear is able to compete with a rival restaurant." William finishes for him.

"Yes," Henry sighs. "We've lost so many customers, I don't know how much longer we'll be able to stay open."

"We're only losing customers because your daughter went and got murdered here," William says cruelly, idly observing the diner.

Before William is even able to realise how cruel that statement was, Henry punches him in the face, knocking to the ground. Shocked, William looks up to Henry, who is standing over him, fury in his eyes, fists still clenched even as Williams blood stains them.

" _How dare you_." Henry snarls, furious tears in his eyes. " _My daughter was murdered by some bastard_ -"

He chokes in his rage and sorrow, and goes quiet, still glaring at William. William stares back in stunned silence, blood dripping down his face from his nose. Before he can even go to stand up, reclaim some of his lost dignity, Henry growls in frustration and storms off outside, the door slamming closed behind him. Only then, does William get to his feet, still flabbergasted at what just occurred. He stays silent as he takes care of his bleeding nose in the bathroom and ineffectually tries to mop up the blood staining his clothes, to no avail. He doesn't mind the blood, he's no stranger to it after all.

When he finally finishes cleaning himself up and goes back outside, Henry is sitting on the edge of the stage, head in his hands. He turns to look at William, his expression tired, angry, sad.

"Sorry about your nose," he says, gaze dropping to the ground.

"I deserved it," William says charmingly, and Henry laughs as if to say _damn right you did_. "My comment was cruel, and unnecessary. More than anyone, I have seen how much Charlotte's death has hurt you. As your friend I should have been more considerate."

The two sit for a moment in silence, before William speaks up again, putting his hands up defensively. "Don't be upset," he says soothingly and watches as Henry seems too get defensive, hunching his shoulders up and glaring at William if he's about to attack him.

"The new pizzeria you were talking about? It's mine - I'm the one who founded it and owns it."

Henry sighs as if he had been expecting this. "How long have you been planning this?" he asks quietly, his voice drained of all emotion and energy.

William swallows as he comes up with a convincing lie. "I had created the characters a while ago and planned on speaking with you about adding them into the show," he begins. "But before I could, Charlotte died and you were in no state to talk business. Then, I decided to make my own restaurant after we started losing customers and I could never find the right time to tell you."

Henry's face sours but he nods in stiff acceptance. He's avoided talking about it, but he and William both know the Diner won't last much longer. They're almost broke, and when William leaves and takes his money with him it'll be too expensive to keep the place open. It's freeing, in a way, for the both of them. They can move on from this place, the tragedy that occurred here, and leave it behind for bigger and better things.

Henry is a touch more sceptical, it's the early 80's and he's been having trouble finding help for his problems. He's beginning to doubt that he'll ever see his son again to be honest, and it terrifies him. William is his best friend and he trusts him completely, but sometimes he'll catch William just standing or sitting or staring and something will be _off_ about it, like he's taking a break from a stage performance on-stage. He doesn't know what it is, but the blankness of William in these moments shakes him to his very core, and he doesn't want Sammy to be around that.

"Will," he begins. William turns to look at him, and for a second his gaze is empty before a curious expression crosses it. The brie emptiness is almost too fast to see, and Henry doubts he'd have even noticed if he hadn't been thinking along those lines. Swallowing his sudden nerves, he carries on, now with the fear that William might suddenly gut him like a fish. "How is Sammy? I've barely heard or seen him lately."

William tilts his head to one side. "He's so terrified of the place I figured it would just be best to leave him at home. Michael's old enough to watch him, I suppose."

Henry sighed gustily, leaning over in disappointment. It had been six months since he's had Sammy, and although he doesn't want to think badly of William and the generosity he's shown taking Sammy in, he can't help but feel that William isn't really interesting in giving Sammy back. He stopped bringing Sammy to the diner, changes the subject whenever Henry asks about getting him back...

Abruptly, William gets to his feet. "I have to go," he says flatly. "Its business related, you know the drill."

Henry nods. He remembers all too vividly, the talks and hoops he had to jump through to get the diner starting and secure funding. Although - William is a lot more financially secure that Henry is, to the point that Henry would consider him quite wealthy. How much funding could he possibly need? William spots the look on his face and quickly answers an unasked question.

"I'm using some new experimental technology on the animatronics." He cast a glance to the old, rundown animatronics standing on the stage, deliberately looked away from the Puppets box, and scowled. "I thought it would be best to have a lot of insurance, in case anything breaks."

Nothing more is said between the two as William leaves, but the two of them are thinking about Charlie's death. Henry sits alone in his failed diner and feels the Puppets eyes on him.

* * *

Another six months passes. Fredbears is closed. Henry keeps the Puppet, for reasons he doesn't understand. Misplaced sentimentality, he supposes, from how it gently curled around Charlie as he took her final breaths. The other two are relocated to Williams garage. Sammy continues to live with William, and grows closer to Elizabeth he grows more confident and she more wiser. Michael continues to treat Sammy kindly, if at arms length. William throws himself into his work, desperate to continue his studies. The neighbourhood kids gossip, you see. They say the girl who died at Fredbears possesses the animatronics and will kill anyone who dares venture near there. Sammy cries. Elizabeth shrieks.

William thinks.

When he decommissioned the Puppet, he noticed something. Strange oil smeared lightly on its limbs, subtle enough to miss. He noticed the way it watched him, even though it was switched off and part of its endoskeleton removed. He digs up the police report on Charlotte's death, notes how the oil marks match to the way the Puppet held her body, and he plots.

Circus Baby's opens.

Elizabeth is enamoured with Baby and begs William to let her see. William refuses. His plans for that animatronic and the pizzeria as a whole have changed since he initially designed her based off a child his daughter crushed on, and she has become something different. A science experiment, a killed, a mindful machine, whatever you may call it. He dabbed some of that oil on Baby's wiring and her eyes lit up with something greater than electricity - with _life_.

He doesn't know exactly what he's created and while he desperately wants to know. he doesn't want this knowledge at the expense of his daughter. So when the pizzeria opens and Michael is out with his friends, he takes Elizabeth, he takes Sammy, and he ignores Henry's calls and the three of them go down together. He counts on Sammy's fear to keep Elizabeth away from Baby, and this is a fatal mistake.

He hasn't seen either of them for an hour, and although he's curious, he's not concerned. The birthday girl is halfway through her _third_ time singing the damned birthday song, and even her guests look bored to death. Baby is still singing in the other room, and none of the children are missing. He's about to mark this as a complete failure when it happens.

The door slams open and Sammy is there, wailing in fear, sadness shock, William isn't sure. Cheerful music plays over the speakers as Sammy sprints over to William, heaving sobs and leaking snot, and grabs his hand, shrieking about Elizabeth - an accident. Everyone in the room looks on, the fun ruined, and William stares. He doesn't have to open Baby's insides to know what has happened to his daughter, he's already well-aware of that.

He just doesn't know what he's supposed to _feel_.

* * *

"I'm so sorry," Henry says again as William stares blankly at the coffin. "I've been there, I know how hard it is."

He gently turns William to look at him and William lets him. The concern in Henry's eyes deepens at this and he fixes William with a pitying, pleading stare.

"I'm here if _you_ need me," Henry says for what must be the fifth time. "You were there for me and I'll do the same for you."

There's a joke there, William thinks. About Henry trying to steal Williams son like William did to him. He wants to say that, but his body doesn't cooperate. He stays silent, frozen, his human facade broken in his grief. At least, he thinks he's grieving. He _should_ be grieving, and everyone has assumed that's whats going on. In all honestly, William doesn't know what he's feeling even now.

Sad, he supposes. He liked Elizabeth. She was charming and funny, and she looked up to him a lot. It's a muted sadness, a vague unhappiness that he won't be able to see her again, accompanied by a fog over his thoughts, making it hard for him to do important things, like check on Michael, plan the funeral, figure out what he's going to do with Baby. Theoretically, Elizabeth should be possessing her now, with the remnant (that's what William decided to call it) smeared all over her mechanical parts. Theoretically, William should be running tests to see if his hypothesis was true, if he's inexplicably found a way to prove the existence of life after death. Theoretically, William should be doing a lot of things Henry's been helping him out with. Of course, while Henry will do things for William, William sincerely doubts that Henry will experiment on Baby to see if she's possessed is most definitely not one of them, and so Baby stays in Williams workshop in several pieces. Sorry Elizabeth.

"How are the kids?" Henry asks, and William blinks, suddenly jolted out of his thoughts. They're sitting down now, Henry's arm on Williams shoulder, and William feels suddenly humiliated at the image of Henry leading him to sit down like he's a frail old man, and shoves Henry's hand away. 

"They're fine," he says slowly. "Michael's taken it really hard, Sammy is in shock." He supposes he'll have to take Sammy to therapy, but if Sammy saw Elizabeth die, then he'll probably tell someone. How long will it be until Sammy can talk about what he saw? How long will William be able to _persuade_ Sammy to keep quiet? It won't be hard to keep Sammy quiet, at first people will see him as hysterical and upset if he told them the truth, and later his stories of an animatronic swallowing Elizabeth whole will be seen as a product of the vivid imagination of a young child.

But what about Michael? Michael is already suspicious, arguing with William about the closed casket, the money spent to keep everything quiet, Williams decision to keep Sammy around, and if Michael starts talking about how his sisters death won't add up...

William will be in serious trouble.

Henry is still talking, spouting some bullshit about friendship or whatever, but William isn't listening. The fog covering his brain begins to lift, slowly but surely, as William begins to do the thing he does best.

William begins to _plot_ .

* * *

"Sammy, can I talk to you?"

Sammy looks up from his rendition of Fredbear as a hulking beast with a black hole for a face and trembles, burying his chin in the head of his new Freddy Fazbear doll.

Freddy Fazbear is from the new pizzeria William, hoping to recoup the losses he made from his original plan and paying the families off, and Henry, wanting to do something, had put together. Most of the characters William had intended to use at Circus Baby's have come along in one way or another, and Fredbear and what is now known as Spring Bonnie, have been brought along with the ride. William has even managed to find a new way to use animatronics with the creation of the spring suits, allowing them to use Fredbear and Spring Bonnie as costumes and animatronics, with only minimal danger to person.

Freddy Fazbear is more or less free of the baggage from the old diner, as people are much more friendly to Fredbear and Spring Bonnie without the Puppet around. William has a plan to turn Michael on Sammy, keeping him from realising who is truly responsible for Elizabeths death, Henry seems to have given up on trying to get his son back. Like is going very well for William.

"Yes, Mr Afton?" Sammy asks quietly, looking slightly to the left of William.

William crouches and Sammy shrinks back slightly, but stays calm.

"You were with Elizabeth when she died?" William asks, and sees Michael just out the corner of his eye go very still and grins internally. Sammy opens his mouth to say something, but William quickly keeps going. "You were there when she collapsed?" Again, Sammy goes to speak but William keeps going, turning a warning eye on Sammy that makes him whimper in fear. "You know, the gas has a specific smell, I can only assume she was too excited to notice it. Did you smell it, Sammy?"

Sammy looks at him in confusion and panic, before hastily shaking his head. "I- no- there-"

"You weren't paying attention?" William goes on, drowning Sammy's stammering complaints that there wasn't any gas to smell at all, "You were too afraid to notice?"

Sammy mumbles, curling into his bear. Tears fill his eyes and William lets a slow, cruel smile cross his face.

"I noticed that you were fine," he finishes coldly, sounding for all the world like a grieving, angry father. "Did you think the air was weird to breath? Did you not think to tell Elizabeth you suspected something was wrong?" Another whimper. William pauses to allow Sammy to speak, but the boy simple shakes his head, crying silently. "Maybe you thought it was fair? A daughter for a daughter, a sister for a sister?" At this, Sammy sobs, now breaking into the familiar tears William has grown to know and hate. "Or perhaps," he finishes, drawing to his feet, and looking at the trembling child in front of him in distaste, "you were simply stupid."

He looks quickly at Michael, now openly staring at Sammy in hatred and disgust, and leaves the room before he notices how smug William is. Michael is predictable, loving enough to hate anyone who hurts his family, but also loving enough that he can't believe ill of someone he loves. It would be easy for Michael to hate a stranger than his father, even if the stranger is a young boy, and Michael has gladly taken the bait. Maybe if Michael were thinking clearly, he'd wonder by William chose to confront Sammy in full view of him, why he accused Sammy of outright _murdering_ Elizabeth, why it all felt so staged, but grief makes the mind do crazy things.

* * *

"I'm sorry," Michael says again. "I'm so, so sorry."

It won't be enough. It will never be enough.

Henry looks at Michael in disbelief, and shifts his gaze to William, who looks appropriately contrite. Of course, there is no way to look guilty when you're telling your best friend that his son died. While in your care. In an accident caused by _your_ son.

There is, of course, the minute detail that Michael had been shitty to Sammy for ages and William had turned a blind eye. To the outside eye, it would seem like simple neglect, that William had been so caught up in his work, desperately trying to ignore his grief over Elizabeth's tragic death that he had ignored Michael lashing out, but of course, the truth is much more heinous. If Henry knew William had blamed Sammy for Elizabeth's death, manipulated Michael into bullying him, talked to Scott about how much of a cruel, _cruel_ prank it would be to put someones head in the animatronics mouths... well, William didn't doubt that the semi-codependent relationship Henry had with him would shatter faster than he could say "I also murdered Charlotte".

"How did this happen?"

Henry looks away from William, to his hands, the ceiling, the floor, tears in his eyes. His voice is quiet, calmness about to shatter. His shoulders shake as he buries his head in his hands, his breathing growing more ragged. William nudges Michael and gestures for him to leave. Michael flees the room, and William patiently waits for Henry to speak again.

When Henry saw Charlotte's body lying in the alley, he had screamed. It was an unforgettable noise, one even William thought was horrible to listen to. He thinks Henry will do that again, and wonders briefly, if Michael is close enough to hear. Instead, Henry shouts, words instead of pure anguish, although the raw emotion in his voice is enough to take William back.

" _HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN_?!" Henry screams, fixing William with an agonised, furious stare. William looks back at a loss for words, and considers that he might have overestimated the strength of his relationship with Henry. The rage and hate in his eyes is almost paralysing, and for a tiny minute William thinks Henry might actually attack him.

Henry staggers forward, grabbing Williams shoulders tight enough to hurt.

"You were living with them! You must have known that Michael was treating Sammy like shit! _I_ knew! _Everyone_ knew!" Henry shakes Williams shoulders, snarling violently. Tears pour from his eyes as he makes some horrible growl that chokes off into a sob and bows his head, shoving William away.

William stumbles against the door and stares in bafflement. Like that time the two sat in the old Diner, he finds himself terrified of Henry. Even when Charlotte died, he'd never been so angry... but he didn't know William was responsible for Charlotte's death. The two men, once thicker than thieves, stood in silence, and it suddenly dawned on William that Henry blamed him for Sammy's death. He'd broken Henry, and ruined their friendship in the process. How cruel of Henry, to ruin what was supposed to be a momentous occasion for William was now bitter, hollow...

Sad.

He opens his mouth and closes it again. He doesn't know what to say, if there's even anything to say at all. An apology? Some cruel remark, blaming him for his children's deaths, something to ease the tension? For a moment, he considers making a joke, but them an idea comes to mind.

_Tell him. Tell him you killed Charlotte._

He pauses, flabbergasted. Part of him has always wanted to see how would Henry react to this news, and at this point he doubts he could destroy whatever is left of their friendship. In fact, it might even bring him some joy, to see Henry's face. Yes, that's exactly what he should do. Three little words, and he could break Henry one final time.

He opens his mouth.

_Say it._

He doesn't speak. He stands in silence, mouth hanging open, suddenly unwilling to do it. What was the point? He couldn't hurt Henry anymore, and the happiness he would get wouldn't be enough to counter the fact that he would be giving Henry a confession to murder, one he wouldn't hesitate to report to the police. With the lingering suspicion over Elizabeth's death and Charlotte's brother dying while under his care, that might be enough to lead to his downfall.

Another, unspoken reason lingers in the back of his mind, one he refuses to even think. What if it didn't make him happy? What if he said it and realised much too late that he cared about Henry? William doesn't care about people. He gets slightly attached, but he doesn't care enough to keep someone around, enough to want them to be happy.

So he stays quiet and waits until Henry's sobs die down, and the former father looks at William, betrayal on his face.

"You can keep the pizzeria, do whatever you want. I don't care anymore." His voice, is flat, empty. He sags in defeat and William tastes nothing but bitter victory.

"What will you do?" he asks, voice soft. "I can give you money if you-"

" _I don't want your fucking money_." Henry spits, trembling in rage. "I'm leaving. Too many memories."

William nods and without another word, Henry roughly brushes past him and out of the room. Outside, Michael continues to blubber apologies Henry doesn't answer. William stands in the room motionless as the door swings shut, leaving him in darkness. Faintly, his ears pick up the sound of Henry's car driving away. It would be years before the two met again, their friendship now bitter hatred and fury. Henry, now understanding how much of a monster his former friend is, would do everything in his power to bring him down. William, with several more murders under his belt, driven into insanity by years of suffering and isolation, would gleefully try to kill him and his friends, the barest pretence of civility and humanity being the only recognisable thing about him. Michael, so much like William in appearance but the opposite in personality, would aid Henry in bringing him down, desperate to redeem himself for what he did to Sammy, and the three of them would die together. While Henry died, safe in the knowledge that he had freed Charlotte and saved other children from her fate, Michael died with his sister, similarly twisted by years of torment, hoping to bring her comfort in her final moments. William had no one to comfort him and he died alone, terrified in the realisation that there was no escape for him, that years of lying and killing and cheating had led to this - dying alone in a fire his son and friend, both hating him more than they had ever loved him.

In this moment though, William is standing in a dark room and he is alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Can u guess where i gave up lol


End file.
